Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Camaro, She Torments Me

My wife got a call yesterday from someone who wants to look at the Camaro and possibly buy it. This is glad news.

What she didn't know was that the day before, I'd run the engine just to keep things charged and lubricated and whatnot, and steam had issued forth. As near as I can tell, the water pump shaft seal let go and coolant is coming out of the weep hole (I can't wait to see what the Google searches look like for the next week now that I have "weep hole" typed here. Twice.) My Bride is picking up a water pump in Springfield today and then we'll see.

I'm not back online because I finished and decided to have a beer, dear internet friends. I'm back online because the power steering pump bracket has to come off before the water pump can, and the entire set of directions in the Haynes manual for that removal are, I swear to Allah:

1. Remove pump pulley using common pulling tool available at most auto stores.

(OK, done, that was not so bad.)

2. Remove power steering pump bolts.

(Uh, I only see one, but . . .OK.)

3. Remove bracket.

(Right, but the TITLE of this section is "Power Steering Pump--Removal. If I didn't know that much, I couldn't even have looked it up in your stupid book. HOW do I remove the bracket? I've now removed six bolts, one of which was not visible until I made a pretty close inspection, and the thing isn't budging. Save me, Google!)

The good news is that the buyer stopped by while I had the thing in pieces, and he wants it. I figure anyone who can roll up on that scene and still make an offer is in the right frame of mind. But, hey, he knows he won't have to replace a water pump anytime soon, doesn't he?